What happened

On 12 November 2026 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published the last annual report on the Greening Government Commitments for April 2021 to March 2025: the targets central government departments, their executive agencies and other bodies set themselves for emissions, waste, water, buying, nature and climate adaptation. Twenty-three departments sent in returns. The main points, from the report and its data tables:

  • Overall emissions down 43%. Government produced 1,706,327 tonnes CO2e in the 2024 to 2025 financial year, 43.49% below the 2017 to 2018 baseline, against a weighted target of 42%. That implies a baseline of about 3.02 million tonnes, though the report does not print it. Fourteen departments met their own target, seven did not, and two had no target or no data.
  • Defence dominates. The Ministry of Defence alone emitted 914,003 tonnes, about 54% of the total. With the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Transport it accounts for 79%. The biggest percentage cuts were at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (78%), Transport (67%) and HMRC (66%). Among those that missed were Defra itself, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (35% against a 62% target) and the Treasury (10% against 69%).
  • Direct emissions down 18%. Emissions from departments' own estate and operations were 832,643 tonnes, 18% below the baseline, ahead of a weighted target of 16%. Departments put the falls down to lower fossil fuel use, more efficient buildings and fewer buildings, and the rises to estate growth and people returning to offices after the pandemic. The report says the cuts saved government over £323 million in 2024 to 2025.
  • Travel and fleet. Domestic business flights produced 10,484 tonnes, 29% down against a 30% target, and staff flew 1.1 billion km on international business flights. By March 2025, 23% of the government car fleet was zero emission at the tailpipe; the goal is 100% of cars and vans by 31 December 2027, and van data is not yet collected.
  • Waste and water. Waste fell 16% (target 15%), only 2% went to landfill and paper use fell 65%, but the recycling rate was 56% against a 70% target and water use fell 6% against 8%.

The report also notes that departments must now make disclosures aligned with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in their annual reports and accounts.

What it means for your business

Government is a customer that measures. These commitments cover departments' own buildings, vehicles and travel, not their suppliers. But 14 departments had written sustainable procurement into their policies by March 2025, and suppliers bidding for major central government contracts are already asked for a carbon reduction plan. If you sell to government, expect the buyer to understand emissions figures, baselines and targets, because it reports its own the same way. Our free carbon reduction plan check says whether a tender is likely to ask you for one.

The same lessons apply to any organisation. Three things in the report are worth copying. First, it sets a baseline year and reports every year against it, so the 43% is a like-for-like comparison. Second, when the Ministry of Defence and HMRC found better data, they updated their baselines rather than keep an old figure, and the report says so. Our guide on when to restate your carbon baseline covers how. Third, it splits emissions the way your own report should: direct emissions from the estate (your Scope 1 and 2) apart from the overall total.

Flights are the hard part. Even with a policy that lower carbon options be considered before every flight, which 18 departments had in place, domestic flight emissions fell just short of the 30% goal. For many offices, business travel is one of the few Scope 3 categories they can change quickly.

A worked example: domestic flights or the train

Take an illustrative business whose staff make 20 return trips a year between London and Glasgow. Flying Heathrow to Glasgow is about 555 km each way; the train from London Euston to Glasgow Central is about 401 miles. On the 2026 government factors:

  • By air: 22,200 passenger km × 0.22928 kg CO2e per passenger km (domestic, average passenger, with the effect of flying at altitude) = 5.09 tonnes CO2e.
  • By train: 25,814 passenger km × 0.03092 kg CO2e per passenger km (national rail) = 0.80 tonnes CO2e.
  • Moving half the trips to the train saves 2.15 tonnes CO2e a year, about 42% of the flying total, more than the 30% government aimed for.

The free flight emissions calculator works this out for any route.

What to do now

  1. Pick a baseline year and stick to it. Choose a year with complete data, report against it every year, and restate it only when your method or data improves, saying what changed. Our guide on choosing a baseline year explains the choice.
  2. Record business travel by trip. Keep the route, the mode and the number of people for every journey, so you can see which trips could go by train or by video call. See video calls versus travel.
  3. If you sell to government, have your figures ready. A carbon reduction plan with a baseline, current emissions and a target is the usual ask for major central government contracts.